Hands Up United Moves From Protesting to Programming With an Empowering Workshop that Teaches Teens and Young Adults to Code For Local Area Businesses

Hands Up United is looking for 50 participants ages 16-30 from the St. Louis area to apply for the second session of its Roy Clay Sr. Web Development and Entrepreneurship Workshop. The workshop is free and offers a $500 stipend as well as other incentives for those who successfully complete the program. Participants will learn critical web development skills that will be put into practice in an collaborative partnership to provide web support for local Black-owned businesses and organizations. The six-week intensive begins Saturday, July 11th and will take place in the heart of the tech community at T-REX, the region’s leading co-working space and technology incubator.

The Roy Clay Sr. Web Development and Entrepreneurship Workshop, a project of Tech Impact, was officially launched on February 7th, 2014 and recently graduated seven students from their pilot program. The program is named after Roy Clay Sr., a St. Louis native who was known as the “Black Godfather” of Silicon Valley. An early pioneer in the tech world, Roy Clay Sr. was a key figure in the development of Hewlett-Packard’s computer divisions and the first African-American to serve as councilman and vice-mayor in Palo Alto (removed the t in Palo).

In addition to teaching skill sets in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, web hosting, user design, entrepreneurship and consulting, Tech Impact takes a dynamic approach to giving participants hands on experience by partnering with local Black-owned businesses and nonprofits. With this cooperative model, Tech Impact provides tangible social entrepreneurial driven solutions to the socioeconomic conditions and divides that plague St. Louis. The dynamic program aims to not just close the digital divide that exists in many low income and urban areas but to also do the following:

● Educate and empower local residents● Build ties between the community and local Black-owned businesses● Support grassroots organizations● Provide tools for economic sustainability● Simultaneously strengthen individuals, businesses and community organizations● Raise understanding on how the digital divide affects Black and Brown and low-income communities

The second cohort of the Roy Clay Sr. Web Development & Entrepreneurship Workshop, will launch Saturday, July 11th, 2015. Participants who complete the workshop will be given a $500 stipend and will be eligible to receive a laptop. Each participant will be assigned to build a local business’ digital for the duration of the program. Applications are open for St. Louis residents ages 16-30 and the deadline to apply is June 25th, 2015. Applications are available here: www.bitly.com/HUUWebDev. To learn more about the program please go to Hands Up United's website: http://www.handsupunited.org/techimpact

About Hands Up UnitedHands Up United is a community based grassroots organization that sprung up last fall in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s murder. Hands Up is a collective of politically engaged minds building towards the liberation of oppressed Black, Brown and Poor people through education, art, civil disobedience, technology, advocacy and agriculture. Their community programs include their monthly Books and Breakfast program and the Tech Impact initiative, which uses coding and programming to build community empowerment and sustainability. For more information on Hands Up United please visit HandsUpUnited.org and follow @HandsUpUnited_ on Twitter.

HandsUpUnitedis a collective of politically engaged minds building towards the liberation of oppressed Black, Brown and poor people through education, art, civil disobedience, advocacy and agriculture.